U-17 USMNT rout Norway to keep rolling in Aegean Cup

A good start has evolved into a great one for the Under-17 U.S. Men’s National Team.

A day after beating France in its Aegean Cup opener, the U.S. routed Norway, 5-2, in its second Group B game on Tuesday. Elijah Rice, Orrin McKinzie Gaines, Nicolas Taitague, Alexis Velela and Christian Pulisic each found the back of the net for the Americans, who sit in first place in their group and could advance to the championship game with a victory vs. Scotland on Thursday.

Rice, Gaines, Taitague and Velela’s goals were their respective firsts for the U.S. while Pulisic’s was his second of the tournament, giving him the most thus far in the American squad.

The U.S. broke a 2-2 game open in the second half, with Velela netting the winner and Pulisic and Taitague adding insurance goals. The Americans had initially jumped out in front via Rice’s tally, but two goals from Norway saw the U.S. trail before Gaines pulled them level five minutes before halftime.

The result is the latest impressive one for the U.S. team being led by head coach Richie Williams. The Americans, who are now 2-0 in the Aegean Cup with a +4 goal differential, recently wont the Nike International Friendlies and also went undefeated (1-0-2) during a tour of Spain last October.

Here are the match highlights:

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What do you think of the Americans’ 5-2 win over Norway? Think they will beat Scotland and make it to the final? Impressed by what this U-17 USMNT is doing or not taking too much stock into these recent results?

Depends. I don’t get much out of seeing players with little connection to the US, who haven’t spent much time here, representing the US. On the other hand, I would’ve loved to have seen guys like Rossi or Najar or Subotic play for the US because they have meaningful connections here.

I guess if you disagree, it’s easier for you to mischaracterize my position.

Honestly I think our players from 12 to 16 is our golden generation from all the time I’ve been following them (on the internet of course) Alot of these kids have been on trial with big clubs like man it’s, city, etc

It looks like a promising group, but a much more likely answer is that after a couple of decades of improved teaching (still weak but much better than it used to be), a pro league, more access to the game, etc….the culture is showing signs of real growth.
We are a big country with a lot of players…just needed better teaching, infrastructure, role models, league of our own, etc.
I think it’s just a natural step up overall…with a lot of room for improvement.

Are we playing against the best these countries have to offer or are we playing against B teams because their top youth players are busy with club play/training? It seems our youth teams are finding a lot of success against pretty strong countries and I’m not sure how exciting this actually is.

Even if it is the best they have it’s still Norway so I wouldn’t get too pumped. Plus, there isn’t a big correlation between success at this level and success at senior level. It’s a little different at U-20, where I think there is a little bit more correlation.

Having said that, it’s obviously better to win these games than not and some of the individual highlights I’ve seen look promising.

I don’t look into these kinds of results too much, look where Mexico’s “Golden Generation” is now–some performing well at decent clubs (Vela, Chicharito, etc), but overall nothing that makes it seem like those players couldn’t come from any other generation. Here’s hoping they all have big careers though

“who sit in first place in their group and could advance to the championship game with a victory vs. Scotland on Thursday.”

according to USSF, they already have booked their ticket to the final:

“The USA (2-0-0; 6pts) sits atop Group B and will play Scotland on Thursday before advancing to the tournament championship on Saturday. With France and Scotland drawing 1-1, neither team can catch the USA on points. Should the USA lose to Scotland and Norway beat France on Thursday, bringing the Americans and Scandinavians even on points, the USA will still go through as the top team in Group B by virtue of beating Norway head-to-head.”

not sure if this was written prior to the other game, but probably worth updating. another interesting note, Taitague (final goal scorer) is from the U-15 team. that is interesting because he jumped over his Norwegian marker with ease!